Lima, April 21, 2005. Today, during a subregional seminar/workshop organized by the Andean Community General Secretariat and the European Commission as part of the “Initiative for Andean Regional Stabilization,” work was started on the design of the future Andean Plan to fight Corruption.

The Director General of the CAN General Secretariat, Antonio Araníbar Quiroga, termed the design and implementation of that plan a "pressing challenge for the Subregion as a whole,” for it will help reinforce national strategies to fight this scourge and compliance with international commitments on the subject.

He pointed out that the effort required is so large that it calls for a deep and sustained political commitment on the part of the countries and of the international community, together with the valuable involvement of actors and agents of civil society in the Member Countries, in order to move ahead with the identification of the principles, objectives, criteria and mechanisms to guide the war against this scourge.

Araníbar stressed that the task entrusted by the Andean Presidents is of special importance for strengthening and deepening the integration process.

He expressed his assurance that the seminar/workshop would produce “important consensuses that would make it possible to lay the groundwork for formulating the Andean Plan to fight Corruption and to carry out concrete actions in that area.”

The seminar/workshop, in which representatives of government and civil institutions responsible for the anticorruption effort in the Andean countries will participate, envisages the presentation of a basic document on the Fight against Corruption and of recent national experiences, as well as the exchange of viewpoints on the scope and contents of an Andean Plan to fight Corruption and of the institutional and operational mechanisms needed for its implementation.